5 gallon Fluval Spec V

Noooo one of my new shrimp died. I tested the water and nothing was abnormal, but the ph was a bit high, so I think that might have been the reason. However, all the other fish and shrimp are acting normally. Hopefully They will survive by the time I fix it. Btw my stocking is now 3 tiger(I think) shrimp, 2 cherry shrimp, 1 young betta, 4 rasboras and a lone cardinal tetra that was purchased in the before time when I was inexperienced, and I do not have enough space to add more nor willing parents to return. There are also 3 assassin snails. I've adjusted my feeding schedule to every other day, bloodworms on weekends.

The pH was at 7.6, and I want to lower it to a level at which all inhabitants will be fine with. Anybody know how and what level?

Just conducted a massive water change and cleaned the gravel for the first time in a long time. During this I moved all the hardscape out of the tank and into the bucket with the new water, along with the fish. I know that one is not meant to take animals out during water changes, but I did so because I Took almost all the water out. Now, I won't do this again for a very long time, provided I actually do my water changes.

Just did a massive cleanup- When I did a water change, Instead of simply changing water and gravel cleaning, I also took it upon myself to take the pump out and clean it. It was absolutely filthy. Gunk and poop had clogged up the intake and the flow was barely meandering along. The tube walls were covered in the greasy slime, and algae had started growing inside the actual outflow(forgot what it's called). My brother also covered part of the light with some tape, as we were getting a little tired of having to completely scrub the glass every weekend. So far the plants look redder, the water looks cleaner, and the fish seems more active(except the betta, who doesn't seem the most content with the higher water flow(I'm trying to make it flow in a direction so that he will still have places with stagnant water.)

Just got 6 crystals! here's one of them hiding in the mossy driftwood. I counted at least 1 female and 4 males. Hoping that the last one is a female. The guy also got us the higher grade ones in the mixed tank, so that's nice. As far as we could tell the shrimp were fine, except for one of them which had a clearer exoskeleton than the others but that must be stress.


right?

improvise

uh oh. We just discovered the last of our cherries dead, and my brother believes it is a molting fail, but I am skeptical, so I wanted to ask the people on the forum about it, just in case. It's late so I'll test the water tomorrow and if need be do a water change.
here's a picture

Molts! I have been noticing an increasing amount of molts lately, so I think it shouldn't be too far off to assume baby shrimp should be coming along soon. I also moved the cholla wood piece to the back corner, so now I can properly appreciate the tank rather than have anacharis covering half of it.

More molts! All is going swimmingly so far, and the ludwigia is going bonkers again. Might have to trim

Well... Found the fish gasping, did an emergency water change, all is well now. I suspect I put too much dechlorinator when I topped up water earlier today. Hopefully everything is fine now.

On the bright side I noticed the betta's top fin is fully healed.

Well, figured out where the missing pieces of the betta's tail are going. The cardinal is nipping him. It's not surprising, but now I have to figure out how to fix it without removing the cardinal(parents think it's a waste of money to return a fish).

Personally I would return the cardinal. It will be a waste of money if your betta ends up getting sick and dying from the stress of having his fins nipped.

hansgruber7 said:

Personally I would return the cardinal. It will be a waste of money if your betta ends up getting sick and dying from the stress of having his fins nipped.

Click to expand...

That's what I said, but they refuse to do so anyway.

Alright, I now have updated my plan for this tank. At the moment it's a fish tank with shrimp and a bad assortment of fish. However, my parents are getting my brother 6 pinto shrimp(Crystals but prettier) for the tank. I objected, saying that there's no room, and we should probably wait for some space to clear up(ie. a fish dies). However, she went ahead anyway and bought 6 pintos. They're from a trusted breeder so I'm not worried about that. however, this means that the tank will probably soon hit its overstocked mark, and that's not good. So my plan is to not replace any perished animals in this tank, to make room for the bioload new shrimp.

On another hand, because of this, I now want to begin breeding shrimp, preferably pinto shrimp. I went on a bit of a youtube binge this afternoon and did a little research, and found that interbreeding pintos and crystals can be beneficial, and help make hardier young. However, we will have an equal number of CRS and Pintos, so I'm not sure how this will turn out. Any tips for this will be welcome. Also, I might be able to convince my parents to allow me to invest in a shrimp rack, and breed shrimps for a profit. Please give any tips. Thanks!

Ugh, non understanding parents...